Sunday, 1 January 2012

Spiced treacle cake

There’s something about spice that is so wintery and festive. This recipe caught my eye because it uses a large quantity of black treacle but no sugar or eggs. Black treacle is an appealing ingredient instantly reminiscent of traditional Christmas cakes and puddings.

I consider this a “Christmas come-down” cake – by which I mean it’s that time of year when you know that the festive feasts have finished and you shouldn’t really still be polishing off as many Quality Street as you are on an hourly basis, but you do actually rather fancy a bit of cake. This one hits the spot with its strong flavours and easy to eat, no-fuss simplicity!

This cake gave me the chance to test out my fab new nutmeg grater, a Christmas present from the CCM and CCD (Caked Crusader’s Ma and Da):

It’s a one handed device similar in look to those hand-strength building devices – it seems to get mixed reviews but I love it. The nutmeg sits in the middle and a simple squeeze of the handles deposits a nice amount of nutmeg in your batter!

Weighing treacle is so much easier when you weigh it straight into the pan or bowl – here’s my in-no-way-precarious set up:

The cake is topped with a simple white glace icing. I chose not to flavour this as there was a lot of spice in the cake and I didn’t want it to compete. I made a largish amount of icing for the size of the cake – this was at the behest of the CCM who is partial to a thick layer of icing!

Happy New Year to all my readers; may all your cakes turn out splendidly, and may your biscuit tin never be empty!

225g icing sugar2 tablespoons warm water, to start – you may need more

Decoration: anything you choose! Silver or gold balls would be nice, but I had some wafer snowflakes left from Christmas so used those.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°C/Gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Place the butter and treacle in a saucepan and gently heat until the butter has melted and combined with the treacle. Stir occasionally. I find that weighing the treacle directly into the saucepan makes life a lot easier i.e. replace your scales’ dish with the saucepan for weighing it out.

Place the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.

Pour in the butter and treacle and the boiling water and mix until you have a smooth batter. Take care at this point as the batter will be piping hot – don’t use a plastic spatula unless you’re sure it’s heatproof (trust me – this was an awful lesson to learn, not on this cake but an earlier one!)

Pour the batter (it will be gloopy) into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Place the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack and leave to cool – the cake will be delicate until cool so I let it cool completely in the tin before turning out.

Don’t panic when your cake sinks a little – it will not stay as high as it does when first out the oven. It won’t sink with a hole in the middle, but the whole top will settle. Very sticky treacle and spice cakes always seem to do this – it’s a sign of how delicious it will be to eat!

On the day of serving, place the cake on its serving plate.

Now make the icing: place the icing sugar in a bowl and gradually beat in water. You can always add more water if needed so be sparing!

When you have a thick, opaque but still pourable consistency it is ready to be poured over the cake.

Ensure that the whole top of the cake is covered and let the icing drizzle down the sides.

Mmmm... very interesting, but as I've been rather naughty over the festive season I may have to wait for this one... or watch it dissapear from the box without managing a share myself!

Incidentally... I assume your gadget goes right to the end of the nutmeg so there's no little oddly-shaped bits left that are too fingernail-damaging to grate... I hate to waste even the smallest 'meg... any ideas about what to doo with the odds?

Haha I also weigh out treacle like that, so much easier. Also, I have a feeling we own the same saucepan! What kind of texture did the cake have without sugar or eggs? Did it rise much? Happy new year by the way!

Happy New Year CC! Yep, I'm trying to put off stopping the whole eating-chocolate-for-breakfast thing that has been the pattern for the entire festive period... But this cake sure would provide a very delicious alternative!

Happy New Year! Looks lovely , bet it smelt great cooking too.I was interested in this due to a rather unhappy experience with a Mrs Beetons version, too much clove...This may be a silly question but does it keep?

Happy New Year! I am intrigued by a cake with no eggs or sugar! I also have a lot of treacle leftover from another recipe so will bookmark this one. Love your weighing scale! Wishing you a fab 2012, may it be everything you wish for and more :)

Just made this cake this afternoon, smells absolutely divine and loving the dark black colour ;-) Mine doesn't appear to have risen as much as yours though and I did it in the same size tin, may have to go down to a 7" to make it a bit deeper. Really want to leave it for a few days for the flavours to develop, but doubt that will happen in this house cos we all love spiced infused cake! Happy New Year by the way, and looking forward to lots more of your fab recipes!

Read this great novel!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

Privacy notice

The Caked Crusader blog does not share personal information with third-parties, nor does it store or use information collected about your visit to the site other than to analyse content performance. I am not responsible for the republishing of the blog’s content on other websites or media without my permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Cake Achievement in Film and Television Arts (CAFTA)

Have you seen a cake in a film or tv show that deserves recognition? Has a cupcake upstaged a beefcake?

If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.